bush, clinton, and obama administrations. he's now a counselor at the washington institute for near east policy. and khaled elgindy, a palestinian participant in the 2007 annapolis peace negotiations, and now a fellow at the saban center for middle east policy at the brookings institution. i want to start with you. your reading on where things stand tonight in termed of a pause or cease-fire. >> do think the outlines of the cease-fire have probably been shapedded at this point. i think the secretary of state is there and has a chance to finalize this by, in a sense, becoming the, i think, the repository of the commitments that each side has made. i think one of the things that's going on right now is trying to make certain that all the understandings are understood the same way by each side and whatever promises are being made will now be promises made to her as well. in effect she becomes almost the holder of those as a kind of deposit. that, i think, is a chance for the cease-fi to actuly be implemented and gives it more of